1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a purchase monitoring device, to be used by a shopper in a self-service store to scan the price of select items and designate, when desired, that the item is a purchase item, and to store a list and running total of the purchase items for subsequent transfer to a data reception register for verification and payment, thereby providing an effective means of enabling users to be aware of how much they are spending in order to help them to stick to a budget and to expedite the store checkout procedures by not requiring individual checkout scanning of each item.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When shopping a self-service store such as a supermarket, consumers often encounter a number of inconveniences. One of these inconveniences includes difficulty in determining the price of an object to be purchased. This difficulty is a result of recent technology which enables the bar code of an item to be scanned at the cash register, thereby eliminating the necessity for individual price tags on each item, and only requiring that a price and item description appear on a shelf where the item is stocked. Unfortunately, prices often change due to promotions and the like, and are sometimes difficult to identify with regard to the prices displayed on the shelves. A further difficulty encountered at these stores involves the need of many customers to stick to a predetermined, precise budget, thereby necessitating that the cost of items to be purchased be calculated and known before checkout to avoid delays or embarrassment as a result of a deficiency of funds. Finally, the most obvious difficulty all consumers encounter in large self-service stores such as supermarkets is the endless waiting in line, waiting for all items to be purchased to be scanned and paid for. These difficulties are illustrated by the invention of the devices such as those recited in Bianco, U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,614, Collins, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,819, Clyne, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,133, and O'Connor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,530, which utilize scanning of bar codes by individuals. These devices, however, do not provide the flexibility of allowing a person to merely check the price of an item, or select to purchase the item, or select to return the item after selection as a purchase item. Further, these inventions are not structured to provide that a scanned item itself be clearly indicated as a purchase item. Additionally, none of the items in the prior art enable an individual to maintain an accurate and up-to-date comparison of their actual purchases and their budget by clearly indicating the total purchase amount at all times.
The present invention is designed precisely to meet the needs of consumers as well as stores, and make the shopping experience more efficient and more enjoyable. Particularly, the present invention incorporates the use of existing bar code scanning technology which a majority of stores already employ, thereby requiring no adaptation of the store's computer pricing techniques. Additionally, the present invention enables the buyer to keep a constant update of how much is being spent thereby assisting the maintaining of a budget when items are selected to be purchased or returned. Most importantly, the present device enables the checkout process to be highly expedited through an easily adapted data transmission which provides for all purchase data collected by each consumer to be quickly and easily transmitted to a register, thereby requiring only a rapid, cursory examination of the products to determine if they are properly designated as a purchase item. The present invention is a complete system which will greatly assist consumers and store owners alike since it is easily adapted for use and can be easily and non-complicatedly employed by the average consumer. Currently in the art, multiple devices and procedures would be required to provide only a few of the functions of the device of the present invention and none allow a method of shopping as is possible utilizing the present invention.
Further, it would be beneficial to provide a means of verifying the designation of items, which will not substantially deface a surface of the item bought. Accordingly, the present invention provides easily verifiable and/or highly visible indicators which will enable a returned item to be picked up by another consumer and effectively marked.